Social media has the potential to become the driving force behind business. Social media is still gaining in popularity and won’t be going anywhere soon. Many business owners have already realised this and they are putting social media to use for the promotion of their businesses.

Many statistics and surveys show us the growing influence of social media in marketing and how a company can actually draw more traffic and thus profit through this type of marketing. Social media marketing requires only a small investment to get started and can yield huge returns. Social media allows businesses to reach out to their clients easily and often through their online presence allowing it to gain traction as the foundation of the overall marketing strategy of the company.

Realising the influence that social media holds, many small and even big companies are promoting their products and services directly to social media users. Companies often send their products as free samples to social media users so they can review the product. These reviews can influence their customers depending on what the review states about the company and the product.

Given that an average American spends about 37 minutes per day on various social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, marketing through these platforms is a very convenient method indeed. 46% of Americans use the internet to research before they actually make a purchase and they also tend to make a lot of their purchases online as well. Today, the number of people who are checking the internet before they actually purchase a product or service is increasing which in turn is also increasing the need for reviews and online promotion.

Businesses can promote their brands by posting various types of content online to get noticed, including photos, links, product descriptions, videos, status updates about product launches and so on. Photos get 75% of viewership, making them the single most important type of content. Courtesy of sites like Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram, the use of photos for marketing is becoming a very popular trend. The partially revealed photo of an upcoming launch can keep your customers hooked for the next few days and ensure that there is a peak in sales as soon as the product has been launched.

Bloggers and vloggers (video bloggers) hold tremendous power in influencing the market of any product. They connect with potential customers at a more personal level, earning any brand a larger following and thus a lot more income. Bloggers often receive free samples to review for their readers, generating social proof for the product even before it hits the market.

Once they check through product reviews, many more shoppers are likely to investigate further and even go to shop for the product. This is a very subtle form of social media marketing which ensures that buyers get quality reviews but do not feel that the product is simply endorsed for pay, which may lead to reluctance to buy.

The need for social media for brand promotion can hardly be overstated today considering how often people have turned to the internet for their shopping needs. Moreover, social media, like other technologies, has brought down the cost of marketing, further enhancing profitability and returns on investment. Even as the technology sector changes rapidly, the chances of social media as a concept diminishing in importance is very slight. Rest assured that you can gain a lot of benefits for years to come through this medium.

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